And Their Ghosts May Be Heard...
Disclaimer: Same as before...This story takes place a short time after my fanfics Relocated and Meet the Incredibles. For continuity's sake this takes place after the fic Relocated and Meet the Incredibles but before Facility Kronos.
Summary: Taking place in the Relocated AU, ACME paramilitary operative Bluey Truscott reflects on past operations shortly after relocating the Supers away from Syndrome.
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"It's pretty late, do you ever sleep?" A familiar Scottish voice echoed behind him.
Bluey Truscott turned to see his childhood friend walking down the path. "I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I bugger off to six feet under ground." the Australian replied.
"Anything I can help you with?" Marian said, putting a friendly arm around his shoulders.
"Honestly, no." Bluey replied.
"Will you stop the protective act?" Marian asked, "It can be cute at times, but I'm a big girl, Bluey, I'm not the blushing innocent childhood friend of yours anymore."
"I hope part of that sentence isn't true." Truscott quipped.
"I'm still your friend Bluey, I'm just saying that I wish you'd quit acting like I'm the innocent young lass you grew up with." Marian replied.
"Trust me, I don't see you that way. You certainly don't resemble the gangly lass I remember you as." Bluey said, with a small smile.
"And you certainly don't resemble the pimple faced, skinned kneed lad I remember." Marian replied, "But what's eating you?"
Truscott swatted a mosquito, "Currently nothing."
"You haven't changed one bit." Marian replied, "You're still a bloody smart mouth."
"That's how we Aussies and you Scots are." Bluey remarked.
Marian slid her arm around Bluey's shoulders, leaning closer to him. Bluey felt something soft and warm against his upper arm. Her breast. He felt his heart rate quicken and the blood rush elsewhere, in other words her proximity was affecting him the way it normally did, since he was nineteen.
"Now when I was a young man I carried my pack. And I lived the free life of the rover..."
Australia, 1985: "Bluey..." Mrs. Truscott called.
"One second mum!" Bluey echoed from the backyard, as he kicked the rugby ball down the backyard.
"Marian's here...come and say hello." Mrs. Truscott replied.
Bluey walked into the house, through the back door, sweating through his Australian Wallabies rugby jersey and shorts.
"Bluey, please take off your cleats when you go into the house." Mrs. Truscott began. She was a short, wiry Filipino woman, standing about a head or so shorter than her son.
"Yes mum." Bluey replied and walked into the house, promptly freezing in his tracks when he saw her. Marian had grown a few inches since he'd last visited her in Scotland three years ago. She wasn't as thin and wiry as she was then, at thirteen. Her body had clearly grown in other ways, blossoming a woman's curves, as evidenced by the jeans that hugged her lower body, and the black t-shirt she wore showed her growth in other ways.
Bluey Truscott became conscious then, of his sweaty, muddy, grassy appearance. Throwing his rugby ball outside with dear old Dad really didn't make him look all that presentable. "Marian's grown into a lovely Sheila, hasn't she?" Mr. Truscott said, with a grin, "Go say hi..."
Bluey walked forward, with a tentative "Hi..."
"Bluey," Marian beamed, "I haven't seen you in forever! My you've grown!"
"So have you..." Bluey replied. Grown more beautiful...
The two swapped hugs just then, and Bluey apologized, "Sorry, I just came from running some drills with Dad outside."
"Bluey?" Marian asked, pulling him back into the present.
"Yes." Bluey asked, shaken out of the reverie, as Marian eyed him with a curious gaze.
"Are you alright?" Marian asked.
"I was just thinking of when we were growing up. How we'd used to visit each other every so often, because our Dads worked for ACME..." Bluey replied.
"You were such a goofy lad in those days." Marian replied.
"Bollocks." Bluey replied.
"It's true." Marian replied.
"And I remember you used to be so thin. Grandma used to say you could walk between raindrops." Bluey replied.
"I remember she always tried to overfeed me whenever I spent the summer with your family." Marian replied.
"It's the Filipino half of my family." Bluey replied, "They love overfeeding guests, especially if the guests happened to be rail thin Scottish lasses."
"I grew out of that phase, Bluey." Marian replied.
"I very vividly remember that..." Bluey replied. Damn, did I just say that aloud. Wanker. Bluey was expecting Marian to draw away, to slap him, anything but blush and flutter her eyebrows.
"Really." Marian replied, "And I never thought your eyes could widen the way they could in those days."
"To think we barely saw each other after that." Bluey replied.
"You joined the Australian Navy as a Midshipman, I was starting college. I'm surprised we stayed as close as we've been." Marian replied.
"I missed you all those years." Bluey confessed.
Could it be? I mean could he see me as more than the tomboyish friend of his early teens, and someone he innocently flirted with when we were at university? Marian thought, her mind racing.
"Then when I attempted Selection for the Special Air Service Regiment, I barely had time to say hello." Bluey replied, "I'll confess I kept a little laminated portrait of you in my pocket, tied to a bit of string to my belt."
"That's cute, in a weird, stalker-ish sort of way." Marian replied. Would he really think of me like that?
"It helped me get through a lot of things." Bluey replied.
Australia, 1991: The group of approximately eighty-seven young, fit Australian soldiers, with a smattering of sailors from the Royal Australian Navy and airmen from the Royal Australian Air Force stood sweating in the baking sun. Moving among the ranks were course PTIs (Physical Training Instructors).
"Candidate 11, I notice on the last set of exercises you opted to face uphill. To help you understand that in the SAS the easy way isn't always the right way, you all can do another fifty." Sergeant Brumby, a directing staff member began.
The candidates unanimously hit the ground and forced aching, tired, and worn muscles to push out another set of fifty press-ups.
"Candidate 6, I notice your rifle isn't properly positioned on your hands, sir." Warrant Officer Lechner, the lead instructor said in an instructive tone, "Will you take proper care of that Steyr? It might well save your life, sir."
Lieutenant junior grade Bluey Truscott kept pumping out sets of pushups as the instructor spoke. "Yes Staff..."
Bluey was well aware that being an officer only meant that he was held to a higher standard by the senior members of the Regiment. "There's still time to head back to the Navy, sir. After all, there is a nice wardroom aboard ship, leftenant."
"Wouldn't dream of it, Staff..." Truscott replied as he waited in the up position with the other eighty six candidates.
"To your feet!" Brumby shouted. The candidates rose as one.
"Rifle exercises." Lechner announced, "We will do...As many as I damn well please."
"Begin." Lechner began, after an instant. Truscott and the candidates pumped their unloaded Steyr assault rifles over their heads.
Forty-eight...forty-nine...fifty...Truscott thought.
"Keep going." Brumby demanded, "We didn't say stop yet."
Sixty-two...sixty-three...sixty-four...Truscott thought as he kept pushing the unloaded Steyr up and down. Damn, come one mate, how many more...
Seventy-eight...seventy-nine...eighty...eighty-one...eighty-two...Damn it...eighty-five...Truscott thought.
"Alright. I'm done. You may end." Lechner said.
"Grab your bergens (field packs) and kit, and run!" Brumby demanded. The candidates raced to the barracks for their rucksacks to begin a five kilometer run with bergens, rifles, and belt-kits.
After many hours, Truscott winced as he peeled his socks away from his sweating feet. "Tough going, eh mate?" 1st Lieutenant James Tavington, Royal Australian Regiment, and the senior officer among the candidates asked.
Truscott grunted a reply as he saw the blister on his left foot. He filled a basin with hot water and Epson salt crystals and set it at his feet, dipping them into the briny mixture. He took the picture from his pockets and despite himself, managed a tired smile at the memories it brought back.
"Really?" Marian asked.
"I meant every word." Bluey replied, "I've always kept that picture on me."
"Through everything?" Marian asked. The Australian beside her silently nodded.
"Through everything." Bluey replied.
"Even..." Marian began. Bluey nodded.
"And how well I remember that terrible day..."
The Fulani guard's trousers were literally around his ankles. His female victim vainly covered herself with the torn remnant of her blanket and dress in the corner. "Surrender! Surrender!" The Fulani shouted, throwing his arms into the air.
Bluey Truscott aimed his CAR-15 at the man and squeezed off a single round into his forehead, as Jan Shimoda ran over to help the rape victim. He stood over the cooling body of the dead rapist, before running back into the hallway.
The rape victim let out a hoarse, pained laugh as Truscott killed her captor, it was the sound that followed Truscott out into the hallway and into his nightmares.
The recently liberated prisoners walked or were carried towards the rescue helicopters that were making repeated flights in and out of the compound. Truscott fired his CAR-15 and killed another Fulani soldier trying to creep away from the fighting.
Finally the SOG Hatchet Force company and Recon Team boarded the last flights of helicopters, letting the Fulani prison camp burn brightly in the night. As he sat in the helicopter, Bluey Truscott reached into a pocket of his sodden, stinking, and dirty tiger stripe fatigues. He stared at the photo of the smiling, brown haired and blue eyed Scotswoman his childhood friend had become. With every man he killed in that jungle hell, the further away he felt...
"I did that on so many nights. Even when I returned to the World, things I did and saw in Nigeria never quite left me." Bluey replied.
"You could've talked to me..." Marian replied, "I mean we've been friends for years..."
And I hope more, but after everything I've done...Bluey thought.
"Believe me, so many nights my hand was about to dial the number, but how do I begin telling you everything..." Bluey replied.
"You can tell me the truth Bluey." Marian replied, "That's what you do when you love someone..."
Oh my God, did I just say it...Did I...Marian replied. Bluey sat there, completely stunned.
I've been a bloody fool. Truscott thought. To think she cared that much for me, no matter what was in my past.
Marian tried to get her emotions under control. There was no way in hell she could go back. What if she pushed Truscott back into his shell?
Bluey decided to let action speak louder than words, he took her in his arms, tilting his head so their noses wouldn't bump before he kissed her, first gently, before she returned the embrace. Bluey let all the passion he'd been holding in for a long time out. It was a long time before they let go for want of air.
"I love you." Bluey replied, "I don't know quite when it happened, but I do know that it happened."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Marian said, as she leaned her head against Bluey's chest, "If you knew for such a long time."
"I didn't think you'd want to be around me after knowing everything I did..." Bluey replied.
"Bluey," Marian replied, "Why would you think that?"
"I don't know." Truscott replied.
Tears began to glisten in Marian's eyes, "Do you think that I'm that shallow?"
"No. Of course I don't." Bluey replied, gently using his thumb to wipe some tears from her cheeks, "I've had you on a pedestal for years, I'd have thought you'd been horrified..."
"Bluey, you shot a rapist, that's not exactly in the same league as shooting a bishop or a pope." Marian replied.
"I know." Bluey replied.
"So what do we do now?" Marian replied, "We can't really go back to being just friends?"
Bluey held her close, "I don't intend to go back to that point, goodness no."
Marian shifted her position, still resting her head on Bluey's chest. He could feel a couple stray tears soak into his shirt."Are you sure it's the best time? After all, we're on assignment, we've got a world that possibly might have a full blown Heartless invasion at any time, not to mention we've got a disparate group of blokes and a possible Keyblade appearing..." Marian said, quietly.
"I know." Bluey replied, "Believe me, I've feared that any second something could go wrong. But I can't spend the rest of my days worrying and wondering what might have been. That was then, this is now."
"You know we can't go back." Marian replied.
"I know." Bluey replied, gently kissing the tip of her nose, before kissing her lips yet again.
"What do we do now?" Marian asked.
"I thought we already decided we're moving forward with this, luv." Bluey replied.
"I meant tonight, I'm awfully tired, and I'd rather not sleep alone." Marian continued.
"I like how you think." Bluey replied.
Marian whisperred in his ear, "Meet me upstairs...Don't follow, we don't want the others to know just yet..."
"Right." Bluey replied as he sat outside, a widely forming smile on his face as he watched her walk, the sway of her hips.
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"That is so sweet." Helen remarked as she watched the scene from the house next door to the safehouse.
"What's so sweet honey..." Bob replied.
"It's Bluey and Marian." Helen replied.
"Honey, you say the same thing just about every night." Bob replied, "About how they're in love with each other. My question is if our resident Australian is in love with her why doesn't he just tell her or make his move or..."
"Bob, I think your doubtis about to be erased." Helen replied.
"Honey," Bob said as he put his book down, "sometimes romantic little hunches are just romantic little..."
Bob stopped in his tracks as he saw Marian and Bluey kiss, and Marian whisper something into Bluey's right ear. He watched as Bluey waited until Marian was inside the house before following her inside. Despite the fact that Truscott drove him nuts he couldn't help but feel happy for the man.
"And do you still have doubts?" Helen said.
"I'll show you doubts..." Bob said, gathering Helen into his arms...
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END.